Dr. Scott Harding has researched the movement to counter military recruitment programs in public high schools. “It’s a neglected issue that needs to be highlighted so that we can have a more informed discussion about what it means to allow recruiters into schools to convince 16- and 17- year olds to join the military” he says. “Many people are comfortable with it, many oppose it, but there’s also a large group who don’t know its happening.” He interviewed more than 70 counter-recruitment activists in 24 cities across the country, and his book, Counter-Recruitment and the Campaign to De-Militarize Public Schools (Palgrave Macmillan), co-authored with Seth Kershner of Northwestern Connecticut Community College, is a result of this work.
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Child Welfare Research with State Agencies
Working with staff and volunteers from the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, Dr. Megan Feely is developing a well-being assessment for children in foster care, designed for use by child advocates. The assessment will be based in part on two years of state data on more than 1,000 children in foster care in Missouri. “There are some existing child assessments, but they do not capture the family relationships specific to foster care, and we want to include those issues,” Dr. Feely says.
In a separate project, Dr. Feely is studying the implementation of prenatal support programs for women who become pregnant while they are clients of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. She is surveying clinicians to gather their views of the program, including whether or not they refer clients to the program.